Pixel Scroll 10/25/18 Because I Could Not Scroll The Pixel, It Kindly Scrolled For Me

Today’s Scroll is unconscionably short because I took the early part of the day to deliver a prescription to my mother, and must leave soon to see my daughter perform with the color guard at a football game. I have left space to drop in the birthdays when I get back….!

(1) LORD NAMED A JUDGE FOR COMMONWEALTH PRIZE. Karen Lord, author and Worldcon 75 toastmistress, has been named one of the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize judges.

The judging panel will be chaired by Kittitian-British novelist, playwright and essayist Caryl Phillips —

He will be joined on the international judging panel by a judge from each of the five Commonwealth regions – Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific. They will be: Ugandan novelist and short story writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Pakistani writer and journalist Mohammed Hanif, Barbados’s Karen Lord, British short story writer Chris Power, and New Zealander poet, playwright, fiction writer and musician Courtney Sina Meredith.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words) in English. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000. Translated entries are also eligible, as are stories written in the original Bengali, Chinese, Greek, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Tamil and Turkish. The competition is free to enter.

The submission window for the 2019 Prize is open and will close 1 November 2018. Find the 2019 rules here.

(2) CHARGES LEVELED AT ARISIA LEADERSHIP. Crystal Huff says she is calling it quits with the convention: “Why I’m Not At Arisia Anymore: My Rapist is President. Again.” Her 6,000+ word statement explains the charge and a great deal of other history.

Content warnings: rape, trauma, sexism, gaslighting, harassment, intimidation, stalking, and general asshattery of a group of people in general and one rapist in particular….

…Arisia was the first science fiction event I attended, my first year in college. It was the first convention for which I volunteered on staff. After working on the convention for several years, it was the first one I chaired, in 2011. I served on the executive board several times. I used to regard Arisia as my “home convention,” and I was proud of the things I did to make it happen. I regarded the progress on the con’s inclusion and diversity efforts in recent years as having roots in things I did years ago, in ways great and small, and I was thrilled to see accessibility and safer spaces and diversity of program participants expand beyond those efforts. I was, to be honest, chuffed that Arisia was considered a feminist convention by other convention-runners. My online handle, for many years, was “ArisiaCrystal.”

You can therefore perhaps imagine how awful and gutting it was for me when members of Arisia leadership, over the past few years, told me that there was nothing to be done about the fact that my rapist was also on staff, in positions of authority, and has in recent years involved himself with the safety processes of the convention. Over the past few years, these developments have edged me out of the Arisia community.

Marie Brennan responds to Huff’s statement in “On Arisia”

…This is not a con I can trust with my safety, or that of anybody I know. So while I did not have any existing plans to attend Arisia — just a vague “ooh, I should do that someday!” intention — I now have very firm plans not to attend. Not this year, not next year, not any year until and unless this is made better. And if you’re an Arisia attendee, I encourage you to rethink that plan.

(3) STAR TREK ALA ‘RICK AND MORTY’. Coming to CBS All Access, “‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Animated Series From ‘Rick and Morty’ EP & Secret Hideout Ordered By CBS All Access”Deadline has the story.

The expansion of CBS All Access Star Trek universe continues with a two-season order to Star Trek: Lower Decks, a half-hour adult animated comedy series from Rick and Morty head writer and executive producer Mike McMahan, a long-time Star Trek fan. Star Trek: Lower Decks, which will focus on the support crew serving on one of Starfleet’s least important ships, marks CBS All Access’ first original animated series and the first project to be produced by CBS Eye Animation Productions, a newly launched animation arm of CBS Television Studios.

It hails from Alex Kurtzman’s CBS TV Studios-based Secret Hideout, which had been spearheading the Star Trek franchise expansion, and Roddenberry Entertainment. Secret Hideout’s Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin, Roddenberry Entertainment’s Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth as well as former Cartoon Network executive Katie Krentz will executive produce alongside McMahan. Aaron Baiers, who brought McMahan to the project, will serve as a co-executive producer.

(4) INDUSTRY NEWS. Shelf Awareness Pro reports these changes at Tom Doherty Associates (Tor/Forge/Tor Teen/Starscape):

Anthony Parisi has joined the company as associate director, Tor Teen, Starscape, and school & library marketing. He was formerly senior marketing manager at Simon and Schuster.

Rebecca Yeager has been promoted to advertising and promotions manager. She was formerly assistant manager.

Renata Sweeney has been promoted to digital marketing manager, Tor, Forge Books, Tor Teen, Starscape. She was formerly associate manager.

Isa Caban has joined the company as marketing manager, Tor Teen, Starscape, and school & library marketing. She was formerly YA associate marketing manager at Scholastic.

Sara Di Blasi has been promoted to marketing assistant, Tor Teen, Starscape, and school & library marketing. She was formerly assistant to the v-p of marketing and publicity.

Zakiya Jamal has joined the company as digital marketing assistant, Tor, Forge Books, Tor Teen, Starscape.

(5) WORD STUDY. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word “prequel” first appeared in print in 1958 in an article by Anthony Boucher in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, used to describe James Blish’s 1956 story They Shall Have Stars, which expanded on the story introduced in his earlier 1955 work, Earthman Come HomeMother Jones reports “Before 1958, There Was No Way to Say That Something Was Stackable”.

(6) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

  • Born October 25, 1902 – Mark Marchioni, Artist known as “Marchioni”. He sold his first illustration to Hugo Gernsback’s Air Wonder Stories in 1929. He went on to draw black and white story illustrations, in the Modernist, style, for most pulp magazines in the science fiction genre, including Astonishing Stories, Astounding, Startling Stories, Wonder Stories, and Thrilling Wonder Stories, from 1930-1948. In the 40s, his lifelong interest in machinery lead him to invent a coin-sorting machine, for which he and his older brother Caesar won a patent. They also invented, patented, and manufactured for nearly three decades the Tiltall aluminum camera tripod, which became wildly popular with photographers for its superior performance; eventually the rights were sold to Leica.
  • Born October 25, 1924 — Billy Barty, who was frequently cast in character roles where his small stature suited the character, and who is probably best known to genre fans as the wise elder wizard in Willow. He was also in the Ridley Scott fantasy Legend, and played the rotoscoped Bilbo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee in the animated The Lord of the Rings; other appearances include in Alice in Wonderland, Bride of Frankenstein, The Undead, Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White, Masters of the Universe, and Lobster Man from Mars.
  • Born October 25, 1935 – Russell “Rusty” Schweikart, 83, Pilot and Astronaut who was the lunar module pilot for Apollo 9, and the first in the Apollo program to do an EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity). During the launch of the first Skylab space station mission in 1973, the station’s thermal heat shield was lost, and his work developing procedures and equipment for building and implementing an emergency solar shade, and for deployment of a jammed solar array wing, resulted in saving the space station. He was awarded NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal and Exceptional Service Medal. He is the co-founder and chair of the B612 Foundation, an organization devoted to finding ways to defend Earth from the impact of stray asteroids.
  • Born October 25, 1955 – Gale Anne Hurd, 63, Saturn-winning Writer, Film Producer and founder of Valhalla Entertainment. After starting out as executive assistant to New World Pictures president Roger Corman, she formed her own production company which has been responsible for numerous major blockbusters in the last 30+ years, including the Hugo-winning Aliens, the first three Terminator movies, Hugo finalist The Abyss, and Armageddon as well as Virus, The Relic, two Hulk movies, Aeon Flux and the just-announced TV series of the same name, and The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead series.
  • Born October 25, 1963 – John Gregory Betancourt, 55, Writer who is best known (or possibly most notorious) for his third Chronicles of Amber series in Roger Zelazny’s universe, and who has written quite a bit of other franchise fiction including in the Star Trek, Hercules, and The New Adventures of Superman universes. Most of his original fiction was early in his career. He’s also edited in a number of magazines including Weird Tales, Amazing Stories, H. P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror, Adventure Tales, and Cat Tales, and co-edited with Anne McCaffrey Serve It Forth: Cooking with Anne McCaffrey. He founded Wildside Press in 1989, which has received three nominations for World Fantasy Special Awards.
  • Born October 25, 1964 – Kevin Michael Richardson, 54, Actor and Singer who has become a powerhouse as a voice actor in the animation world in the last 20 years. Just a few of his more than a hundred show credits include roles in the animated series The Batman, Black Panther, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Simpsons, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Ben 10, Lilo & Stitch, Gremlins, Ace Ventura, Voltron, Family Guy, and Buzz Lightyear. He has had numerous nominations and wins for Behind The Voice, Annie, and Daytime Emmy Awards.

(7) COMICS SECTION.

(8) SPOILERS. io9’s Avengers 4 Set Pictures Tease an Interesting Upgrade for Pepper Potts” collects rumors (Spoiler Alert) for upcoming movies & TV series including:

  • Avengers 4
  • Night of the Comet
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street
  • Quicksand
  • The Boy 2
  • Monster Problems
  • Terminator 6
  • Charlie’s Angels
  • Reign of the Supermen
  • Daredevil
  • 2018 Arrowverse Crossover
  • Star Trek: Discovery
  • The Passage
  • Cloak & Dagger
  • The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
  • Riverdale
  • The Purge
  • Black Lighting
  • The Flash

(9) LE GUIN. The London Review Bookshop, which is related to the London Review of Books, has chosen Ursula K. Le Guin as its Author of the Month for November. The bookstore will have a dedicated table for the author’s books at its location in London.

Le Guin’s work throughout her long career was underpinned by her deep interest in anthropology, feminism, environmentalism and anarchism. In 2014 she wrote about her philosophy of writing: “anything at all can be said to happen [in the future] without fear of contradiction from a native. The future is a safe, sterile laboratory for trying out ideas in, a means of thinking about reality, a method.”

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, JJ, Nancy Sauer, Alan Baumler, Mike Kennedy, Chip Hitchcock, John King Tarpinian, Martin Morse Wooster, Carl Slaughter, Rob Thornton, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Randall M.]

28 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 10/25/18 Because I Could Not Scroll The Pixel, It Kindly Scrolled For Me

  1. Second!

    2) That could not have been easy for Crystal to write. I can’t easily imagine what it is like to go through that.

  2. “Click Click – Scroll ya later
    File File – no time to rest
    Pixel Pixel – risky business
    All those books, will never get through that pile”

  3. (2) Having been through similar experiences, though not in the context of fandom, I share her anger at this failure on the part of fandom to address what is obviously a very serious problem. I am interested to see how fandom will respond; it sounds as though there are a lot of BNFs who have been complicit in minimizing and covering this up.

  4. So, does a “strong code of conduct” mean that there is something seriously wrong with a convention leadership? Like employers that emphasize “ethics” ?

  5. I believe Crystal. Hence, this is me not going to Arisia, not now, not in the future. My own experience of rape and stalking in the early 1990s is eerily similar to hers, right down to almost getting a restraining order (in my case I let mutual friends talk me out of it). He showed up in public places where he knew I would be. He showed up at my apartment when he knew I was there by myself. He came to my place of work. When we have been at the same sf conventions, he has deliberately sought me out and forced me to acknowledge his presence. And yet mutual friends told me that he was just “socially awkward.”

    So while I don’t know Crystal in person, I do know her story, because in a broad sense, it’s my story too, and like her, I wanted people to believe me.

  6. (2): *headdesk*

    @John A Arkansawyer: That’s a shame – he was a fine musician and a great songwriter. “Rainy Night in Georgia” has just never left me. Damn.

  7. My sincere sympathies for Crystal, and for JJ, and for Laura. I’ve had to deal with harassment (I think it’s likely that most of the women posting here have done so), but never (thank god) rape.

    I truly do think that fandom is getting better at dealing with this problem, which has been pervasive throughout the culture and not just in fandom. (Which, I hasten to add, does NOT excuse its existence in fandom, merely explains it.) Unfortunately, we’re not getting better nearly as fast as we should.

    The positive side (if such things can have a positive side) is that now the stories are getting told, the “missing stairs” (harassers and abusers and rapists) are being publicly called out instead of just whispered about, and fandom is starting to take real action, albeit slowly and unevenly.

  8. Not a genre birthday, but Oct 25 is St. Crispin’s day, and the occasion of a fabled speech. You may be more familiar with Olivier’s or Branagh’s performance, but Mark Rylance’s is my favorite.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOouofFFrZE
    Not rousing or inspirational, but melancholic, for the loss of his “brothers”.

  9. 2] This is like an old school convention style, meeting the new reality of social media. I mean seriously, did they really think they could sweep it all under the rug? That the old style “just stay separated” non-solution would work?

    I have more than a hunch this is going to seriously blow up.

  10. Pingback: Crystal Huff’s Arisia Statement Evokes Strong Response | File 770

  11. (2) What a mess. And I who had heard good things of Arisia before.

    (5) Fun little bit of trivia that, and shows that fandom and sf does have value in coining neologisms.

    (9) Great!

  12. I believe Crystal. (I do know her, but I would believe her even if I didn’t.)

    Good for her for speaking out.

    Let’s hope this is a step towards changing things on a broader scale.

  13. And my instant reaction: With scrolls like these, who needs pixels?

    (Not unlike how one might play Tetris too long, then stop and see tetris everywhere.)

  14. “X is a stalker.”
    “No, he’s socially awkward.”
    “That’s not an excuse, and the two are not mutually exclusive.”

    I would call it coincidental that I just finished editing a short story about a sexual predator getting his just deserts (in a graphic and sometimes brutal fashion), but it’s hard to call any exploration of the subject a coincidence when our culture is SOAKED in the behavior.

  15. R.I.P. Tony Joe White

    I was thinking about scrolling the other night
    I was out on Tsundoku
    Me and my novel was just getting’ right
    Was checking out the reviews
    The radio blasting in the corner
    Turning out the music fine
    I was snuggled up on the sofa
    Making up for lost time
    Steamy pixels – zero visibility
    Steamy pixels – coming from the scrolling heat

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